Chapter 34: Assimilation
Tyler folded his hands behind his head, using his interlaced fingers as a makeshift pillow. He stared up at the wooden ceiling, his eyes wide open in the dark room. It was the middle of the night.
*Why the hell is it taking so long? It's been an entire day.*
The blue hologram hovered in his vision. The circular loading bar was a fraction of an inch away from filling, but it crept forward at a crawl.
*And yet, it's still loading.*
He let out a heavy breath. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, planting his feet on the floor. He pressed his palms into the mattress, leaning his weight backwards.
*It's too quiet here. It's not like my old world where I could use my phone or watch TV to kill time. When there's nothing to do, there is literally nothing to do. And I can't sleep. I need to see what this skill is.*
Muffled voices drifted through the wall from the otherside. Tyler turned his head toward the door. He remembered the tight, drawn lines on Lisa's face when they arrived back at the house. James had stumbled inside, muttered that he wasn't feeling well, and walked straight to their bedroom. Tyler hadn't been able to hear what explanation James gave her. The older hunter had passed out immediately and hadn't woken up since.
*I hope hes okay. Hopefully he regains his energy tomorrow.*
He sighed,* I'm pretty low on cash right now, but I think I figured out another way to make money. I hope it works.*
He looked back up at the system projection. The bar was a hair's width away from completion.
*Should I try to craft again while waiting? I have the ingredients for the items I just got. I could definitely make those daggers.*
"System, craft Dual Bronze Daggers," he muttered under his breath.
The loading panel vanished. A new prompt flashed into existence.
[SYSTEM CANNOT CRAFT DURING THIS PROCESS]
*It's not letting me craft anything.*
He mentally opened his inventory hologram. Taking up three separate storage grid spaces were three round, unrecognizable icons. A thick, red 'X' was struck through each of them.
*I can't even see what those things are. I thought the system just glitched out in the forest, but it actually crafted something. I just don't have any access to it.*
He opened his right hand, focusing his intent, trying to force one of the unknown items to materialize in his palm the way his weapons usually did. The inventory panel violently stuttered, glitching for a split second before settling back into its static state. His palm remained empty.
Tyler exhaled through his nose. *No matter how many times I try, I can't remove these things. There's no description. They're just taking up space.*
"What about my achievement?" he whispered.
The inventory projection dissolved, replaced instantly by a new line of text.
[THE UNKNOWN ACHIEVEMENT REWARDS ARE STILL BEING PROCESSED. User WILL BE ALERTED AS SOON AS THEY ARE CONFIRMED.]
Tyler dragged in a breath.* It keeps saying that. Seriously, this thing has a problem.*.He kept his eyes on the floating text.* I was too scared to even ask it at first because I thought it might trigger that agonizing scan again.*
"Why is this thing having trouble recognizing that I'm human?" Tyler whispered to the empty room. "Isn't it obvious? It recognizes other people instantly, and it doesn't glitch. But when it comes to me, when it scans me... it becomes unstable."
*It's still having problems recognizing what I am. Is it because I'm from another world?*
Tyler mentally summoned the circular loading bar back into his vision. He stared hard at the glowing circle.
*I have a lot of questions. But it doesn't answer them. It just ignores me. I need answers. The only problem is, this thing is the only one that can give them. Why was I the one who was chosen? Mike always wore that necklace. Why me?*
The loading panel vanished instantly.
A new screen snapped into place.
[PROCESSING COMPLETE. WOULD THE USER Like TO LAUNCH A TUTORIAL?]
"Yes," Tyler said, his voice carrying louder than he intended in the quiet room.
He instantly snapped his head toward the door, holding his breath, listening to see if anyone in the house heard him.
The tutorial prompt vanished, instantly replaced by a new projection. The blue text abruptly expanded, stretching outward until it covered nearly the entire wall of the dark room. Dense blocks of glowing words filled the space.
Whoa... That's a massive description. It actually expanded so I can see it all.
Tyler scanned the lines. Halfway through, his brows pulled together in a tight crease. He kept reading, his lips moving silently as his eyes tracked the glowing text. When he reached the bottom, he pushed himself up from the mattress, standing in the center of the room.
The massive hologram dissolved.
*This is insane.*
He stared down at his bare palms. He remembered the system prompt from earlier. The word Merging.
*So my mana is no longer the same. I have both inside me.*
He dragged a hand through his hair, pushing the strands back from his forehead.
*The mana became one.*
A new projection flared in front of him.
[THE USER'S CURRENT ITEMS HAVE VERY FEW DORMANT MANA ENGRAMS. THE TUTORIAL CAN ONLY BE LAUNCHED WHEN THE RIGHT ITEM IS CRAFTED.]
"Right," Tyler muttered, his voice raspy. "The tutorial."
The prompt vanished. Tyler dropped backward, letting his weight hit the edge of the mattress. With a sharp mental command, he pulled up the crafting menu.
[CRAFTING]
A circular loading bar materialized beneath the text.
"It's actually crafting now."
The glowing circle surged forward, completing the loop in an instant.
[CRAFTING SUCCESSFUL.]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: CRAFT COMMON WEAPON]
[+2 EXTRA STAT POINTS]
*I got another achievement. But this one's rewards were decided instantly.*
Tyler extended his empty hand. A horizontal streak of blue light shimmered into existence across his palm. The light solidified, dropping a sudden, dense weight directly into his grip. A two-meter-long silver spear rested in his hands. Tyler dragged his thumb across the cold metal. The steel held a dull, heavy sheen, catching the faint flicker of the room's candlelight.
He gripped the weapon with both hands, testing its balance. The spearhead was wide, forged into a thick, kite-shaped point that ended in a razor-sharp edge. The long steel shaft looked completely smooth to the eye, but as Tyler squeezed it, the bare metal provided a firm, grounded friction against his skin, refusing to slip.
A new prompt hovered directly above the blade.
[ENOUGH DORMANT MANA ENGRAMS HAVE BEEN DETECTED TO DRAW A SKILL.]
*I can actually draw a skill from this one,* Tyler thought. He tightened his grip on the heavy pole. *If I read that right... this mana within the monster hides, and everything around us, has mana engrams. The system said it's like the mana's memory. Those specific mana particles, the engrams, are what create the skills inside everyone. They are everywhere. But they lay dormant.*
Tyler forced his internal mana toward his palms, pushing it directly into the cold steel. A physical drain pulled at his chest as the energy flowed out of him. He felt the pathways under his skin thrumming with the transfer. The flow felt distinctly different, the energy coursing through his veins was dense and thick, carrying a heavy, dragging weight it never had before the fusion.
James said the mana is everywhere. In the trees, in the air. Even in the earth itself. That means those mana particles, those specific engrams, are everywhere too.
He pushed harder, funneling a steady stream of his dense mana straight into the spear.
*If the system is accurate, I should be able to trigger the specific mana circuit holding those engrams with my own. Therefore, I awaken the dormant skills within the item.*
The heavy Silver shaft and the kite-shaped blade suddenly flared with a blinding, bright blue light. A split second later, the glow snapped out, plunging the room back into dim candlelight.
[ASSIMILATION SUCCESSFUL]
Tyler summoned his status hologram. A new line of text rested at the bottom of his skills list.
[Seven Strikes - MC: 30]
Tyler's jaw slackened.
*It actually worked.*
He stared down at the heavy steel weapon resting across his lap.
*I can actually draw out the skills from items now.*
A low, breathy chuckle escaped his throat.
*This is unbelievable. I didn't even know something like this existed.*
The corners of his mouth pulled upward into a wide grin. "The possibilities are endless," he muttered to the dark room, his calloused fingers tapping against the metal shaft. A short laugh shook his chest. "Did I just get lucky?"